Abstract
MADS-box genes are considered as the foundation of all agronomic traits because they play essential roles in almost every aspect of plant reproductive development. Keratin-like (K) domain is a conserved protein domain of tens of MIKC-type MADS-box genes in plants. K-domain technology constitutively expresses a K-domain to mimic expression of the K-domains of other MADS-box genes simultaneously and thus to generate new opportunities for yield enhancement, because the increased K-domains can likely prevent MADS-domain proteins from binding to target DNA. In this study, we evaluated utilizing the K-domain technology to increase maize yield. The K-domain of a blueberry’s SUPPRESSOR of CONSTITUTIVE EXPRESSION OF CONSTANS 1 (VcSOC1K) has similarities to five MADS-box genes in maize. Transgenic maize plants expressing the VcSOC1K showed 13–100% of more grain per plant than the nontransgenic plants in all five experiments conducted under different experimental conditions. Transcriptome comparisons revealed 982 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in the leaves from 83-day old plants, supporting that the K-domain technology were powerful and multiple functional. The results demonstrated that constitutive expression of the VcSOC1K was very effective to enhance maize grain production. With the potential of mimicking the K-domains of multiple MADS-box genes, the K-domain technology opens a new approach to increase crop yield.
Highlights
Plant-specific MIKC proteins have conserved MADS (M-), intervening (I-), keratin-like (K-), and C-terminal (C-) domains (Theissen et al, 1996; Gramzow and Theissen, 2010)
We provide the phenotypic data of transgenic maize plants containing a constitutively expressed VcSOC1K (VcSOC1K-CX) from five experiments conducted under different conditions
A total of five MADS-box genes on five chromosomes in the maize B73 representative genome showed similarities to the VcSOC1K (Figure 1C). This was the foundation of our hypothesis of utilizing constitutive expression of the VcSOC1K to mimic expression of the K-domains of multiple MADS-box genes and to regulate plant development for grain yield increase in this study
Summary
Plant-specific MIKC proteins have conserved MADS (M-), intervening (I-), keratin-like (K-), and C-terminal (C-) domains (Theissen et al, 1996; Gramzow and Theissen, 2010). MADS-box genes were frequent targets of selection during maize domestication and improvement (Zhao et al, 2011; Schilling et al, 2018) They play essential roles in every aspect of plant reproductive development and were considered as the jack of all traits (Heuer et al, 2001; Schilling et al, 2018). Of the MIKCc gene clades, SUPPRESSOR of CONSTITUTIVE EXPRESSION OF CONSTANS 1 (SOC1) is a positive regulator of the downstream MADS-box genes such as APETALA1 (AP1) and FRUITFUL (FUL)/AGAMOUS-like 8 (AGL8) (Lee and Lee, 2010; Alter et al, 2016). A maize ZMM28 gene (patent application # WO2008148872A1), which is a homolog of the AGL8, has been successfully applied to enhance grain yield by its constitutive expression (Munster et al, 2002; Anderson et al, 2019a,b; Catron, 2019)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
